Tuesday, November 27, 2007
The latest Mid-Major Top 25, plus news from the home office in Center Valley.

The Crusaders move up three spots to No. 10 in this week's Mid-Major Top 25. Bucknell and Colgate still getting a few votes.

Patriot League Men's Basketball Release - 11.26.07 (Condensed version)
With breaks for final exams and the Christmas season looming in December, Patriot League teams will pack plenty of games into the last week of November action. It starts with four contests on Monday, highlighted by Holy Cross hosting Ohio and Colgate making a trip to Notre Dame. Also, Lehigh hosts NJIT and American is at Mount St. Mary's. Navy is at Howard in Tuesday's only action, but five games highlight the Wednesday slate. Holy Cross and Lehigh host their second game of the week, with the Crusaders playing Yale and the Mountain Hawks taking on Quinnipiac. Lafayette and Bucknell are at home against Penn and Marist, respectively, while Army is at Hartford. Navy wraps up the weekday games by hosting Towson on Thursday.

Player of the Week
Jarell Brown, Army Sr., G, 6'2, 183, Cleveland, Ohio/St. Peter Chanel

Brown put up the best single-game scoring effort for a Patriot League player this year and tied his career high with 30 points in a loss against Cornell on Tuesday, and followed it up with 26 points in a win over Presbyterian on Saturday to earn his fourth-career Anaconda Player of the Week honor, and first this season. He notched eight three-pointers in the win against Presbyterian, good for second on Army's all-time single-game list and just one off the school record. Brown averaged 28.0 points, 2.5 rebounds, two assists and two steals per game for the week, and shot the ball extremely well. He connected on 60 percent (18-30) of his shots from the field and 65 percent (13-20) from three-point range, and hit on 87.5 percent (7-8) of his foul shots. Brown accounted for 39.7 percent of Army's offense in the two games, while taking 28 percent of the shot attempts. He scored at least 11 points in each of the four halves he played in the week, and has now scored 26 points or more in three of Army's five games this season. Brown is now only 10 points shy of reaching the 1,000-point mark for his career.

Rookie of the Week
Rob Keefer, Lehigh Fr., G, 6'3, 185, North Wales, Pa./Abington Friends

Keefer earns his second consecutive Rookie of the Week honor after averaging seven points, 3.5 rebounds and one assist in Lehigh's losses to Albany and Maryland. His performance against the Terrapins was especially strong, as Keefer scored a career-high 12 points and totaled a career-high six rebounds against the ACC contender. Keefer has started every game for Lehigh, and leads all Patriot League freshmen with 8.0 ppg. He leads all Lehigh freshmen in points, minutes and rebounds.

Patriot League Notebook

Leopards Pick up a Pair
Lafayette was picked to finish in last place in the Patriot League preseason poll, but showed that it has the potential to prove the doubters wrong with a pair of home victories last week. They knocked off UMBC, 87-84, in overtime on Tuesday and rolled to a 71-54 triumph against Central Connecticut State on Sunday. A high-powered offense has ignited a 3-2 start to the season. The Leopards lead the Patriot League with 79.2 points per game for the year, and also post a League-high 15 assists and 10.8 three-pointers per contest. Andrew Brown leads the team with 17.0 ppg, and seven players average six points per game or more. That scoring depth was evident when seven different Lafayette players scored in double figures in the two victories last week. Brown was the only one to notch a double-digt total in both games, with five players reaching the mark against UMBC. Lafayette tries to post a three-game winning streak at home against Penn on Wednesday.

A tough weekend
While Lafayette's victory over Central Connecticut State capped off the weekend action, Patriot League teams were only able to garner three wins in eight games from Friday-Sunday. Navy had a couple of close calls in the Philly Hoop Group Classic, but lost to Seton Hall, 79-75, and to Penn, 71-67. Bucknell, Colgate and Lehigh also suffered losses. But the weekend action produced victories for Army and American. The Black Knights got 26 points from Jarell Brown in a 63-58 win over Presbyterian, while the Eagles had a convincing all-around performance in a 73-50 victory at NJIT.

Milennium Men
Navy's Greg Sprink continues to add to his point total as the only active 1,000-point scorer in the Patriot League. Sprink notched 45 points in two contests over the weekend, and sits 34th in Patriot League annals with 1,267 career points. He is one of 56 players to score at least 1,000 points in League history, and is second in the Patriot League with 19.3 ppg for the year. He'll have the company of one more player in the 1,000-point club soon. Army's Jarell Brown put up a huge week with 56 total points in games against Cornell and Presbyterian, and is now just 10 points away from 1,000 for his career. Brown is averaging 18.2 ppg for the season.

Still the Only One
When Lehigh won at St. Francis (Pa.) on Nov. 17, the Patriot League became the first of 31 Division I conferences to have all of its teams record at least one road victory this season. More than a week later, the Patriot League is still the only one to accomplish the feat. Lehigh's home win over St. Peter's on Nov. 14 made the League the second conference to have every team record at least one win over a Division I opponent. The SEC beat the Patriot League to the mark by day.

Team Notebooks

American
The Eagles split a pair of games on the road last week, knocking off NJIT, 73-50, on Saturday and losing at Morgan State, 62-54, on Tuesday...Garrison Carr averaged 16.5 ppg in the two contests, and is fourth in the Patriot League with 17.7 ppg for the year...He leads all Patriot League players with 26 three-point field goals made for the season, and already has five more treys than he did all of last year...He is shooting 46 percent from beyond the arc...Derrick Mercer is sixth in the Patriot League with 16.0 ppg, making the Eagles the only team in the League with two players averaging more than 15 points per contest...Mercer is in the top five in the League in assists, field goal percentage, three-point percentage and assist/turnover ratio...Carr, Mercer, Frank Borden and Travis Lay all scored in double figures in the win against NJIT...The Eagles forced 26 turnovers in the game, while only committing 11 of their own...American concludes its three-game road trip with a visit to Mount St. Mary's on Monday, then returns home to face UMBC on Saturday.

Army
The Black Knights went 1-1 last week, notching their first home victory in a 63-58 triumph over Presbyterian on Saturday and losing, 93-78, at Cornell on Tuesday...The win over Presbyterian snapped a two-game losing skid...Jarell Brown scored 30 points in the loss to Cornell, the highest single-game total for a Patriot League player this season....Brown scored 26 in the win over Presbyterian, and hit on 18-of-30 shots in the two games, including 13-of-20 from three-point range...He hit eight three-pointers against Presbyterian, which ranked second on Army's single-game list...He moved into sole possession of third place on Army's career three-pointers list with 170...Josh Moonshower scored a career-high 16 points against Presbyterian...Guard Josh Miller has tied or set a career-high in assists in the last four games, and notched seven in the win over Presbyterian...Miller leads the Patriot League in assists, and is in the top 15 in scoring and rebounds...Army played the Presbyterian game without two of its top big men, Doug Williams and Chris Walker ...They are on the road twice this week, at Hartford on Wednesday and at VMI on Saturday.

Bucknell
Bucknell fell to 2-2 on the season with a 64-55 loss at Wagner on Saturday in its only game of the week...The Bison trailed 29-13 at halftime after making only 5-27 shots in the first half (1-11 from 3-point range), but they scored 42 points in the second half and closed within seven on three occasions... Patrick Behan scored a career-high 17 points in the loss...Freshman guard Darryl Shazier had a solid day with six points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals, while classmate Todd O'Brien notched eight points and six boards...O'Brien also had three blocks in the game, and leads the Patriot League with 11 blocked shots through four games...The Bison lead the League with 4.75 blocks per contest...John Griffin hit two 3-pointers, giving him 153 for his career...Griffin needs one more trey to reach the top five on Bucknell's all-time list...Griffin and Behan lead the Bison and are tied for seventh in the Patriot League with 14.5 ppg...Bucknell returns home for the first time since Nov. 10 when it takes on Marist on Wednesday to kick off a three-game homestand...They also play St. Francis (Pa.) on Saturday and La Salle on Dec. 3.

Colgate
The Raiders came into the week with an unblemished record, but suffered their first two defeats with a 61-60 loss to Marist on Wednesday and 81-76 loss to Dartmouth on Saturday...Marist scored on a putback with seven seconds left for the victory, while Colgate led Dartmouth by one point with less than five minutes to play...Kyle Roemer was the high scorer in both games, and recorded a career-high 26 points against Dartmouth...He averaged 20.5 ppg for the week, and connected on all 11 foul shots...Roemer leads the Patriot League with 20.2 ppg for the season...Kendall Chones had 20 points against Dartmouth, the fourth time in his career that he has scored 20 or more in a game...Daniel Waddy chipped in with 15 points in the game and Willie Morse had nine, but the other six players to see action totaled only six points...Colgate kicks off a long six-game road swing on Monday at Notre Dame...The Raiders will also become the third Patriot League team to visit Cornell on Saturday, and will not play at home until after the New Year.

Holy Cross
The Crusaders only played once last week, and made the most of their outing by beating Harvard, 80-69, on Tuesday...It was the first time that any opponent scored more than 54 points against them, but the Crusaders still lead the Patriot League with 55.5 points per game allowed....They also lead the League in scoring margin, free throw percentage, field goal percentage defense and rebounding margin...Harvard fought back to tie the score at 62 with 5:56 to play, but the Crusaders answered with a 10-0 run to put the game away...Tim Clifford scored 22 points for the second consecutive game, and now leads the team with 13.5 ppg for the season...Alex Vander Baan had 18 points and eight rebounds, while Adam May had a career-high 16 points and six boards...Vander Baan leads the Patriot League with 8.5 rebounds per game...The Crusaders play the remainder of a four-game homestand this week, putting their undefeated record on the line with games against Ohio on Monday, Yale on Wednesday and Dayton at the DCU Center in Worcester on Saturday.

Lafayette
The Leopards were the only Patriot League team to complete a 2-0 week and moved to 3-2 overall with an 87-84 win in overtime over UMBC on Tuesday and a 71-54 victory over Central Connecticut State on Sunday afternoon....Andrew Brown had a team-high point total in both games, scoring 15 against UMBC and 17 against CCSU...Bilal Abdullah had 16 points against CCSU and Paul Cummins added 12, and seven different Lafayette players scored in double figures in at least one of the two games this week, with Brown doing it in both... ..Lafayette hit 12-of-25 three-pointers against CCSU, and 10-of-25 against UMBC for a 44 percent clip from long range for the week...The victory over UMBC avenged an 86-51 loss last season...Lafayette hosts Penn on Wednesday, then is off for the weekend until hosting NJIT on Monday...After that game, the Leopards will play their final eight non-League games on the road and not return home until they play Holy Cross in the League opener on Jan. 12.

Lehigh
The Mountain Hawks had a tough week on the road, losing 78-66 at Albany on Tuesday and 72-51 at Maryland on Friday...Freshman Rob Keefer scored a career-high 12 points and pulled down six rebounds against Maryland...He has started every game for Lehigh, and leads all Patriot League freshman with 8.0 ppg...Matt Szalachowski tied Keefer for the team lead with 12 points against Maryland, and four different Lehigh players scored in double figures in the two games last week...Zahir Carrington (14) and Bryan White (12) both did it against Albany...The Mountain Hawks lead the Patriot League in assist/turnover ratio, due in large part to Marquis Hall leading the League with twice as many assists as turnovers (18/9)...Bryan White is in the top five in the League in rebounds, blocks and steals...After playing four of its first five games on the road, Lehigh plays five of the next six at home...They host NJIT on Monday and Quinnipiac on Wednesday of this week, before traveling to Central Connecticut State on Saturday.

Navy
The Mids won, 71-60, over Canisius on Wednesday before dropping a pair of heartbreakers over the weekend at the Philly Hoop Group Classic...They had a 16-point first-half lead before falling to Seton Hall, 79-75, and also lost to Penn, 71-67, after holding a halftime advantage...Greg Sprink averaged 20.7 ppg and 5.7 rpg for the week, and was even better in Philadelphia with 22.5 ppg and 6.0 rpg in the two contests...Sprink set a career-high in steals with four against Canisius, then matched it against Seton Hall...He has scored in double figures in every game this year, and has 22 career 20-point games...Navy's 37 three-point attempts against Seton Hall were the second most in school history...The Mids connected on 13 of the 37 shots...Navy shot just 74-of-207 (35.7 percent) in three games during the week...They grabbed 45 offensive rebounds in the three contests...Brian Richards scored a career-high 15 points against Canisius and then grabbed a career-high nine rebounds against Seton Hall...Navy's bench has scored at least 27 points in all seven games this year...The Mids concludes a busy, nine-game Novemeber by playing at Howard on Tuesday and at home against Towson on Thursday...They play Mount St. Mary's on Dec. 3, then have two weeks off before their next action at San Diego State on Dec. 17

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